Specimen work- Part 1

   The last entry in our blog was about the trip to California and Colorado to get specimens for research. As part of a grant, I was on the hunt for a specific group of Miridae (plant bugs) that were related to the bugs I did my PhD research on. Thankfully my trip to Colorado got some!

Pinning and paper-point mounting some of the bugs from Colorado that are now part of our collection!

   The first thing I had to do was go through all the bugs that I got on the trip, and pull out one or two of each different species that I wanted to do DNA work with. Those were set aside were put in nearly 100% ethanol to keep them dry, because water is actually really bad for DNA. The rest of the specimens were then pulled out to be prepared for the museum's collection and so I have specimens to look at for additional identification. Small bugs like my bugs (see photo) have to actually be glued with regular Elmer's glue to the tip of little paper points, since if you tried to pin them with metal pins they would get destroyed! You can see "pointed" specimens on the left in the white box (called a unit tray). The little paper note is where and when I got them, so I can remember which paper labels to attach to the specimens in the labeling stage (next step).

Example of what the bugs will look like when they are done, with the proper labels. These are from Texas when I was living there for graduate school and collecting around the state.

    Since I'm going to do the DNA lab work tomorrow morning/afternoon, I will hold off on posting about that for now. I hope you all have a great week!